Gore rules himself out of presidential race

(Guardian) - The newly crowned Nobel peace prize laureate, Al Gore, has moved to squash suggestions that he will stand as a candidate for the 2008 presidential elections.

"I don't have plans to be a candidate again," the former US vice-president told Norwegian television.

"I'm involved in a different kind of campaign, a global campaign to change the way people think about the climate crisis."

The blunt statement effectively brings to an end the state of limbo - actively maintained by Mr Gore until this point - in which observers and supporters were left guessing as to his electoral intentions.

The newly crowned Nobel peace prize laureate, Al Gore, has moved to squash suggestions that he will stand as a candidate for the 2008 presidential elections.

"I don't have plans to be a candidate again," the former US vice-president told Norwegian television.

"I'm involved in a different kind of campaign, a global campaign to change the way people think about the climate crisis."

The blunt statement effectively brings to an end the state of limbo - actively maintained by Mr Gore until this point - in which observers and supporters were left guessing as to his electoral intentions.

The ambivalence only sought to heighten fevered speculation that he would stand next year for the office of which he was deprived in 2000, despite beating George Bush in the popular vote.

The room for Mr Gore to manoeuvre in making a presidential bid was always very slight, with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama already proving popular candidates among Democratic primary voters.

But supporters - led by the website campaign, Draft Gore, that took out full-page adverts in the New York Times last week urging him to stand - hoped that the award of the Nobel peace prize would lead to a surge in the polls that he could no longer resist.

That surge never came. A Gallup poll this week found the percentage of Democrats who wanted him to run had fallen from 54% in March to 48% now.

By staying out of the race, Mr Gore will avoid the gruelling battles ahead in key primary states such as Iowa and New Hampshire.

Instead, he will have the more gentle satisfaction of receiving the Nobel prize at an award in Oslo on December 10.